


the hunger of a dragon is slow to wake, but hard to sate

by Sinna



Series: The Inherent Romanticism of Dragons [5]
Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:46:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24561028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinna/pseuds/Sinna
Summary: In which an abandoned hatchling grows up in the port city of Malone.(Or: Lucky Sevens, but make it dragons)
Relationships: Ashes O'Reilly & Smooth Mickey, Dr Carmilla & Ashes O'Reilly
Series: The Inherent Romanticism of Dragons [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1832185
Comments: 5
Kudos: 142





	the hunger of a dragon is slow to wake, but hard to sate

**Author's Note:**

> title from Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea

It started, as these things often do, with a child.

This particular child looked more like a drowned lizard, but Mick “Smooth Mickey” O’Reilly recognized it well enough. A dragon. Couldn’t be more than a few days hatched, and nearly dead. Probably pushed out in a dispute between siblings. There were reasons dragons rarely had more than one egg at a time.

Mick almost left it there, to die on the banks of the bay, but there weren’t any dragons living nearby. The fact that it had survived so long already meant that it had a certain amount of fighting spirit. And having a dragon in his debt could be… useful.

Mick had been a dragon once. Still was, technically, but a certain dispute with a certain fae queen had seen him ripped from his hoard and trapped in the weak and mortal form of a human.

This child could be the answer to all his prayers.

\--

Or it could just be a brat.

Within a few days, Mick was severely regretting his decision, and starting to suspect that maybe the hatchling was instead abandoned by its parent for being a massive pain in the ass. It was fussy, it was loud, and it was very good at breathing fire. Mick seemed to remember not breathing fire until he was several years old, but this little brat was setting everything it touched alight at the smallest inconvenience and constantly trying to climb into the fireplace.

“Your scales aren’t tough enough for that yet,” Mick warned. “It’ll hurt.”

The hatchling paid him no mind. Mick sighed and let it continue its path. If it wanted to learn the hard way…

To his surprise, the hatchling didn’t leap back in pain when they touched the flames. Instead, they gave a chirrup of pure joy and dove directly into the hottest coals, curling up with a contented sigh.

Weird.

But the fire kept it out of trouble for the most part, so Mick let it roast itself to its heart’s content.

Probably wasn’t good for the kid, but that wasn’t his problem.

\--

Within five years, it was clear that the hatchling would never wow other dragons the way Mick had dreamed. They were slow to learn things most dragons picked up in their first few months, and more interested in fire than any dragon had any right to be. It should be a tool, not an obsession.

But that hardly meant that the little dragon was without their uses.

If Mick couldn’t return to his former position of glory, he intended to at least be the top of Malone’s criminal underworld.

And this little ash-covered hatchling would help him do it.

\--

Ashes O’Reilly was nearly twenty years old when they finally learned to shift their form. Uncle Mickey had been trying to teach them for years, grumbling about how he’d been able to shift forms with ease by age ten. But he couldn’t shift forms now, so really Ashes didn’t know what he had to be up on his high horse about. They didn’t _need_ to be able to look like a human. They needed to be able to breathe fire, and they were already very good at that.

What they wanted to be doing with their time was going down to the docks and hanging out with the few members of the Lucky Sevens who weren’t complete asshats. No one there cared that they were a dragon, or at least not more than once.

But Uncle Mickey had insisted no “gallivanting about” until they got this right, so they’d mostly been confined to their room for the past year and a half. They could sneak out when Uncle Mickey was busy, but recently every time he’d been busy he’d made sure that they were also busy, though whether it was by design or just because he had more for them to do was anyone’s guess.

They didn’t notice it happening at first. They weren’t even particularly trying. They’d long ago ceased actually putting effort into this. But they thought about it every so often nonetheless, and apparently this time it was enough.

The world suddenly shifted, and it took a moment for Ashes to figure out what had happened.

It took looking down at their own hands – not claws anymore – to realize what happened.

Within moments, they were racing for the stairs.

“Uncle Mickey! I’m heading out to the docks!” they called as they ran past his office.

“Not without- oh! About time, Ashes. Be back in time for work tonight.”

“Yes, sir!”

And then they were gloriously free. People in the streets didn’t quite get out of the way for an excited teenage human the way they did for a fledgling dragon, but Ashes made good time nonetheless.

Ashes found Owen and the rest of the younger Sevens clustered around the news board, reading out particularly amusing stories to each other.

“Owen!” they shouted.

He looked up in surprise.

“Ashes?”

They nodded, grinning.

He stared for a moment.

“You’re a girl?”

They looked around in confusion. Was he talking to someone else?

“I don’t think I am?”

“Well you look like one,” Billy teased.

Ashes found that they could still breathe fire in this form, and Billy very nearly lost his hair.

“Right, sorry, not a girl,” he agreed.

“Drinks on me?” Owen offered.

That smoothed things over nicely, and Ashes spent a very nice evening singing along raucously to the dirtiest shanties the pub’s musicians would play and drinking the rest of the Sevens under the table.

They still made it home in time for the job though.

\--

Things changed, in the next few years. Uncle Mickey took more and more secret jobs, and the Sevens started to run out of luck. When they lost three men to an ambush by the Aces, Ashes started putting some things together.

“Hey, Uncle Mickey,” they remarked, leaning against the wall of the warehouse.

“Ashes!” He looked startled. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“The Aces have been awful good at sensing our next move lately, don’t you think?” they asked.

“Suppose so,” he agreed. “What’s your point?”

“Don’t try to lie to me,” Ashes hissed, intimidating even in their human form. “I know you’ve been passing information. What’s your game?”

“I’m not getting any younger, Ashes,” he said.

“So? That’s how time works. Killian, and Owen, and Maggie, though, they ain’t getting any older, and that’s because of you.”

“I’m a dragon, Ashes,” Mick snapped. “I should have thousands of years left.”

“I’m sorry about this, Uncle Mickey,” they said as they breathed in deep.

“So am I, Ashes.”

The flames died in their lungs. Ashes eyes widened in fear.

“What have you done?”

“Look at your feet, Ashes.” They did, seeing the shining circle of magic below them. They wondered if it had been there the whole time and they just hadn’t noticed it until now. “The Aces have a witch on their side, hatchling. She can undo my curse. But I gotta take down the Sevens first. And that means I either bring you over, or I take you down. You gonna join up?”

“Never!” they hissed.

“You’re a fool. You’re trapped in mortal form right now. Just like me. I could kill you, easy.”

“Better to die a human than live a traitor.”

Mickey shook his head with a sigh.

“Oh, Ashes. You’ve never understood.”

He kicked over a lantern, setting the wooden boxes in the warehouse aflame.

“I suppose now you’ll at least understand how your victims feel when you burn them alive.”

And then he walked away. Ashes tried to run after him, but the magical circle around them kept them firmly in place.

They screamed, their voice for once not echoing with their draconic heritage.

As the flames burned higher, what had once been their comfort now became their enemy. Their weak _human_ lungs filled with smoke, and they collapsed to their knees, coughing desperately.

The fire was still so beautiful, even as it threatened to consume them. A part of them tried to take comfort in the fact that at least they were going to be killed by something they loved.

It wasn’t much of a comfort.

“Well, you seem to be in a bit of a bind.”

Ashes looked up in shock at the unfamiliar voice. A woman stood there, unburned by the flames around her.

“Who… are… you?” Ashes coughed out.

The woman smiled.

“My name is Carmilla. I can undo that pesky spell holding you, if you’d like.”

Ashes wasn’t stupid.

“What’s the price?”

The woman shrugged.

“Come with me when I leave town. Stay with me for ten years. I’ve never met a dragon quite like you, and I am very curious.”

“One year.”

Carmilla kept smiling and held out their hand.

“Ten years. Are you in any position to bargain?”

Ashes had to admit that they were not. With a sigh, they reached out her hand. They could feel the magical energy as Carmilla sealed the contract. When it was done, the circle under their feet vanished and they could finally breathe.

“A pleasure dealing with you, Ashes O’Reilly.”

“One request, before we go?”

“What is it?” Carmilla asked, already looking bored.

“I want to burn this city to the ground.”


End file.
